The edo shogunate controlled the imperial court and famous officials by the law of forbidding the annexation of the government and the law of martial family. Because of the diligent and diligent alternate system, famous officials needed to travel to and from Edo and its neighboring countries regularly. After experiencing the island rebellion and completing the policy of locking up the country, I only made a small amount of transactions with the Netherlands and the Qing Dynasty when I left Nagasaki. As soon as politics was stable, the economy developed and prospered in the Tokugawa era. In the middle of Edo, the shogunate's finance was in trouble, and Tokugawa Jizong implemented the security reform to temporarily restore the finance, but it deteriorated again. Since then, the reform of natural forest protection has tried to improve, but it has not solved the root cause. At the end of the year, the shogunate was forced to establish the country by European and American countries, and the unequal treaties such as the Japan-US Kanagawa Treaty were signed by Perry, which led to the split of the country. With the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC) and the prosperity of respecting the king and resisting foreigners, Tokugawa Yoshinobu finally returned the regime and territory to the imperial court.
1 historical summary 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed as a general to conquer foreign countries and set up a shogunate in edo. By the time of the third generation general Tokugawa Guang Jia, the shogunate organization was basically completed. The territory of the shogunate accounts for about 1/4 of the national land, and the rest is owned by Daming (vassal state), which is called vassal state. The general is the supreme ruler of the country. Under him, he decides policies, manages government affairs, and is responsible for controlling the court, name and diplomacy. Daming is the ruler of various vassal States, with family members and seniority. , directly rule the people, and have the administrative, judicial and annual tribute collection rights of the territory. The shogunate set up an envoy to visit the DPRK and an inspector named Yan Fu to supervise the vassal States, and took measures such as taking part in the pilgrimage and changing the name to control the names, but the vassal States still had relative independence. As a result, a political system was formed under the control of General Tokugawa.
At the end of 17, due to the development of commodity economy, the wooden model system was in crisis, which was characterized by financial difficulties and frequent peasant uprisings. In order to cope with the crisis, the shogunate carried out reforms from1mid-8th century to11940s, but it didn't work. 1854 after the founding of Japan, the national crisis intensified the crisis of feudalism. Driven by the reformist warriors at the lower level, the powerful princes in the southwest, such as Shama and Changzhou, gradually adopted different policies from the shogunate, colonized and prospered, and resisted foreign enemies. Under the pressure of the peasant uprising at the end of the curtain and the curtain fall movement centered on the powerful princes in southwest China such as Sachang, the 15th generation general Tokugawa Yoshinobu was forced to announce his return to the big government at the end of 1867.
1867 65438+1Feb. 9, 1999, the clique behind the scenes launched an imperial retro coup and announced the abolition of the shogunate system. The newly established Meiji Emperor's government completely defeated the shogunate forces through the Chen Wu War of 1868 ~ 1869. At this point, Japan's feudal shogunate politics ended.
2 Overview of social structure
In Tokugawa Japan, all residents are divided into four categories by strict hierarchy: samurai, farmers, craftsmen and businessmen. Before the Tokugawa period, there were some flows between these classes, but General Tokugawa restricted these flows in order to safeguard his power and privileges. In particular, they tried to protect the samurai class, making it impossible for the peasant class to become warriors. 1586, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a decree stipulating that farmers must cultivate on their own land. 1587 promulgated that only warriors can wear long swords. Later, wearing a long sword became a symbol of the samurai class. With the change of economic situation, the general is not so successful in maintaining strict boundaries between different classes.
knight
Soldiers are warriors. At the top is the general himself. Below him is Daming, the landlord who controls a lot of land. Daming's men are warriors gathered by themselves and can serve them in many ways. Some of them are instructors, some guard his castle, and some form his private army. In addition, in a big city like Edo, samurai have various positions-officials in the shogunate or police. Finally, there are ronins, that is, warriors without masters. They don't have to repay their masters and have no stable source of livelihood. Ronals may settle in a special place, teach skills or do other jobs. However, many ronins will wander around the country looking for paid jobs. Some people will also be hired by high-priced names such as mercenaries. During the Tokugawa period, Japan had a population of 30 million, including about 2 million samurai.
farmer
Rice is the glue that binds all social strata, and it is naturally produced by farmers. The meter is measured in stone. A stone can support a person for a year. During this period, the annual output of rice in Japan was estimated at 25 million stone. The general is responsible for distributing the harvest in the whole country. He took 20% himself and gave most of it to Daming. According to Charles J. Dunn, Kaga fans, the most powerful celebrity in northern Japan, can receive 65,438+3,000 stones. In Tokugawa Japan, more than 270 famous names can receive at least 10,000 stones. What does this leave for farmers? It depends on the weather. Usually, farmers hand over more than half of the rice harvest. When the years were bad, neither the general nor Daming reduced their demand, and farmers were forced to live on less food. Famine in rural areas during this period was not uncommon. In this way, although farmers enjoy privileges in society-second only to samurai-their lives are usually very difficult. Growing rice requires a lot of hard physical labor. Today, a lot of work must be done by hand. In difficult times, farmers will ignore the general's ban and move to the city to engage in trade. When their father's land is inherited by the eldest son, many young sons will also go into business.
handicraftsman
It is difficult to clearly distinguish between industrialists and businessmen because their economic activities often overlap. For example, a clothing producer may sell his products, and his career can also develop in other directions, such as borrowing money. In Tokugawa society, samurai have high requirements for certain skills, such as casting swords, which is highly valued. Therefore, the sword maker has a high status. In Tokugawa Japan, common skills include carpentry, masonry, wine making and painting.
businessperson
Businessmen, especially those in cities, become rich, but they are at the bottom of the social class. This is because Confucianism believes that businessmen don't produce anything like farmers and craftsmen. Instead, they earn money from people who produce labor. However, because of money, other classes, even junior samurai, are sometimes willing to accept this lower position. In addition, as in the Tokugawa period, the economy gradually transformed from feudalism to commerce, and on the whole, businessmen could improve their social status. In Tokugawa Japan, trade is usually a slow and difficult undertaking. Although the road system is huge and well maintained, the general forbids vehicles to be used for military defense. In this way, most of the goods passing by land are placed on the backs of horses or people.
Other groups
Several other groups exist outside this class system, including actors, monks and butchers. In some ways, since it is in the composition of Japanese society.
Outside the strict class system in the Edo era, its members had certain degrees of freedom. However, this system has enough living security and livelihood, so life outside the system also has disadvantages. The butcher is an exile-forced to live in his own group and avoid other members of Japanese society. Their status is so low because their jobs are related to death: they deal with animal carcasses, tan hides and make leather. Butchers face many unlucky things in religion. Influenced by Buddhists, Japanese people are generally vegetarian, and killing is forbidden. In Shinto, contact with death requires fasting. In modern Japan, we still insist on distinguishing butchers. The butcher family list was secretly circulated in the society. Conservative Japanese families refer to such lists to prevent their sons or daughters from marrying butcher families.